A study of 166 women with suspicious mammograms who underwent
ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology (USFNAC) showed
the technique to be 100% accurate in diagnosing cancers, reported
Dr. Thomas G. Frazier at the annual meeting of the American Radium
Society, held in Paris, France. This number is based on 3-month
follow-up of the patients, said Dr. Frazier, who is Senior Attending
Surgeon at the Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania,

"We found 17 early cancers in our study (none could be felt),"
said Dr. Frazier, who is also Clinical Professor of Surgery at
the Medical College of Pennsylvania. "In our study, the cost
to diagnose each cancer was $4,667 when USFNAC was used. This
compares to $52,505 per cancer diagnosed for standard biopsy procedures.
That's more than a 91% savings," he commented.

"We looked at the costs of biopsy alone by averaging the
costs of five patients and found that standard biopsies cost about
$5,377. This compares to USFNAC, which costs only $478 per procedure,"
he said.

Your name

E-mail

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.